An anonymous researcher (one person though they use “we” throughout their documentation) has released the results of an extraordinary study. By temporarily constructing a botnet on openly available devices around the world, they were able to map usage of the global internet over IPv4 at a scope and level of detail that has no rival outside of proprietary network operations databases.
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I’ll be using Omeka to collect and organize the myriad cultural objects that are beginning to congeal around my research into the internet in West Africa. This platform also plays really well with academic organizational conventions and even with bibliographic management software, like Zotero, which I love. For now I’m using the hosted version, at lewislevenberg.omeka.net — more to come there soon.
The summer now underway, it’s a good time to take stock of gains, setbacks, and lessons learned from the semester. This post simply reviews the three sets of work undertaken over the past few months, and then try to detail the priorities and next steps necessary to continue progress towards the dissertation. Between materials, structures, and approaches, more incommensurability than contiguity prevails – yet weak ties persist in imagination and in theory. Broadly speaking, both epistemological and methodological considerations justify holding all three in concert, as parts of the long-term and focused project. And yet this can only hint at a strategy, it seems, and my largest outstanding challenge will be to find the coherent framework that unifies or at least governs the relationship between each of these schools of thought. Continue reading
Migrating a WordPress blog from GoDaddy to Amazon Web Services Hosting with Bitnami.
Having recently moved several sites, including this one, from GoDaddy to Amazon, I thought I’d share the process. I’m indebted to several other such blog posts whose tutorials pointed the way. (TODO: add links). I will assume, for those readers following this post, that you already know how to create an Amazon account, and that you have at least a passing familiarity with (or the ability to look up) Linux command line operations.
The first step is to spin up an Amazon EC2 instance on your account. When you choose your Amazon Machine Image (AMI), you have a huge variety of options, especially for WordPress. I recommend using the 1-click Bitnami WordPress AMI from the AWS Marketplace (TODO: add link and AMI #) – this is a free, stable release that is well-integrated into (indeed, designed specifically for) WordPress on AWS.
TODO: add screenshot
When you launch the instance, you’ll have to assign it a key pair for security. Be sure to save the private key in a safe place, because you only get one shot to download it.
TODO: add screenshot
Security Group: SSH by default. Add ports 80 (HTTP), 21 (FTP), and SFTP, and 3306 (MYSQL) access set up.
Assign an Elastic (static) IP address to the instance, so that you can access it from anywhere more easily – but be aware that if you need to shut down the instance, the IP address will release from it, and you’ll have to reassign it.
Open an SSH tunnel to the instance (user: bitnami, key: private key)
Open an FTP connection to the instance (same credentials)
TODO: add screenshot
TODO: add screenshot
export db (incld add-drop tables) from old
export content (wp exporter)
copy wp-content folder (tarball works well)
replace bitnami wp-content/ with the backup from the old one (ftp) (unzip or tar x*f on the new site)
import db via phpmyadmin (plugin)
import content via importer (plugin)
*delete ipconfig file*
if you have to change file permissions/ownership:
wp-content gets 0775, owner is bitnami, group is daemon.
backup and edit httpd.conf
– name of admin, allow override all, include wordpress.conf and virtual hosts.conf
httpd-vhosts.conf
– virtual host using name of site, point to wordpress/htdocs document root
– create a second virtual host with the temporary name of the site?
backup and edit wordpress.conf
– instead of htaccess file
sudo vi /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/conf/wordpress.conf
– set rewrite mod rules to /wordpress/
mysql – table wp-options
– siteurl and -home to
– 127.0.0.1/wordpress/
restart apache and mysql
fix breaks:
– front-end settings; just put the two sites side by side.
– duplicate content from importer, esp. menus
– links: esp. relational vs hard links if domain is changing (incld. directory structure e.g. example.com/blog/ into example.com/)
– images: likely bad links if wp-content and db are both imported
– plugins: this is the big one esp. if there are server config tweaks necessary. case by case basis.
dns change: a record
– point @ to AWS elastic IP
– try to keep old one as cname or subdomain a record
backup and edit wp-config.php
– to name the site
shaboom
Having recently moved several sites, including this one, from GoDaddy to Amazon, I thought I’d share the process that drove me pretty crazy at first. I’m indebted to several other such blog posts whose tutorials pointed the way:
I will assume, for those readers following this post, that you already know how to create an Amazon account, and that you have at least a passing familiarity with (or the ability to look up) Linux command line operations.
The first step is to spin up an Amazon EC2 instance on your account. When you choose your Amazon Machine Image (AMI), you have a huge variety of options, especially for WordPress. I recommend using the 1-click Bitnami WordPress AMI from the AWS Marketplace (I used ami-745af71d for Ubuntu 64-bit – a free, stable release for AWS).
When you launch the instance, you’ll have to assign it a key pair for security. Be sure to save the private key in a safe place, because you only get one shot to download it.
Security Group: SSH by default. Add ports 80 (HTTP), 21 (FTP), and SFTP, and 3306 (MYSQL) access set up.
Assign an Elastic (static) IP address to the instance, so that you can access it from anywhere more easily – but be aware that if you need to shut down the instance, the IP address will release from it, and you’ll have to reassign it. You’ll have to delete or rename bitnami’s IP configuration files (
Open an SSH tunnel to the instance (user: bitnami, key: private key)
Update and upgrade the server if necessary.
Open an FTP connection to the instance (same credentials)
On the old server:
Export your database (including an add-drop tables query) from the old host (This may be through PHPMyAdmin, for example. If you need access to the database, consider installing the WordPress plugin Portable PHPMYAdmin or Database Manager)
Export your WordPress content through the built-in Exporter Tool in WordPress. This will download a specialized XML file.
Copy your wp-content folder in its entirety from the old server via FTP or SCP.
On the new server:
If necessary, install a database management plugin like you did on the old site.
Replace the default bitnami wp-content folder with your backup from the old site via FTP or SCP.
Import your database via PHPmyadmin (or plugin)
Import your content if necessary via the Importer tool (installs like a plugin)
if you have to change file permissions/ownership:
wp-content gets 0775, owner is bitnami, group is daemon.
backup and edit httpd.conf
name of admin, allow override all, include wordpress.conf and virtual hosts.conf
httpd-vhosts.conf
virtual host using name of site, point to wordpress/htdocs document root
backup and edit wordpress.conf
instead of htaccess file
sudo vi /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/conf/wordpress.conf
set rewrite mod rules to /wordpress/
mysql – table wp-options
siteurl and -home to
127.0.0.1/wordpress/
restart apache and mysql
$ sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart apache
$ sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart mysql
fix breaks:
front-end settings; just put the two sites side by side.
duplicate content from importer, esp. menus
links: esp. relational vs hard links if domain is changing (incld. directory structure e.g. example.com/blog/ into example.com/)
images: likely bad links if wp-content and db are both imported
plugins: this is the big one esp. if there are server config tweaks necessary. case by case basis.
dns change: a record
point @ to AWS elastic IP
try to keep old one as cname or subdomain a record
backup and edit wp-config.php to name the site
shaboom
We expect no clean equivalence between infrastructure, labor, capital, and internet development. Still, we know that the growth of a robust modern internet takes vast amounts of time, skilled labor, and knowledge — all elements of advanced capital. So, when we consider the rise of today’s African internet, we must ask, first, who builds it — and then, where its infrastructure overlaps or clashes with existing geographical patterns. Heavily visual organization and logic help think through these issues of backbone, traffic, and investment. Their combination leads to some interesting insight to the specific challenges facing the continuation of Africa’s internet-building. Continue reading
I seem to have left my small black notebook/calendar/planner somewhere on my way home last night. So… if you’re anywhere from the GMU campus to I-66 to the Beltway Inner Loop to the Medical Center Metro station to the Tenleytown Metro station to the #31 bus, and you see my little black notebook – would you please let me know?
UPDATE 10 March – Planner found and returned! Thank you!
I study the recordings, writings, and public figure of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Pennsylvania death-row prisoner since 1982. I analyze synecdochic manifestations of his body in space, his oeuvre in time, and the codes of his figure online. This includes examining analog and digital media artifacts, as well as observing figurative representations of both Abu-Jamal and Daniel Faulkner, the police officer that Abu-Jamal is convicted of killing. I use interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological interventions to show how the social and political implications of this polarizing narrative extend beyond either man’s life or death.